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INSIDE THEATRE
P R O J E C T I O N L I G H T S & S TA G I N G N E W S
The Magic
of Mary Poppins
By BryanReesman
GEAR LIST
Ashley Brown as Mary Poppins
LIGHTING:
1 Strand 520 console, running
automated and conventional lights.
2 Strand 550, remote programming
and backup
8 Strand SN110 Nodes.
7 DHA 8-lamp Digital Light Cur
tains 6’4” 12V 240W Par56 VNSP
1cir (1920w)
24 Vari*Lite VL2000 Washes (700w)
45 Martin MAC 700 Profiles (700w)
62 Vari*Lite VL1000 TS Spots (1Kw)
9 Vari*Lite VL3000Q Spots (1200w)
4 Vari*Lite VL3500Q Spots (1200w)
38 Clay Paky CP Color 400 SH/HSR
Lamps (400w)
1 High End Systems TechnoBeam i
(1500w)
12 Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes
4 Lycian 1293 X3K-Xenon Follow
spots (3Kw)
21 10° ETC Source Fours (750w)
38 14° ETC Source Fours (750w)
35 19° ETC Source Fours (750w)
138 26° ETC Source Fours (750w)
13 36° ETC Source Fours (750w)
7 15°-30° ETC Source Four Zooms
(750w)
8 PAR 64 NSPs (1Kw)
1 Strand Quartet Fresnel (650w)
@
4 Toccata EP at 2Kw w/White Light
VSFX cloud wheels
40 MR16 Birdies 12V
25 L&E 6’ 30LT 3-cir MR16/EYJ 75W
750W (mini-strips)
84 Pulsar ChromaBatten 200/10°
LED Striplights
7 6” Fresnels
2 Source Four PAR VNSPs (750W)
17 10” Wybron Coloram II CC for 10°
(10w)
19 7.5” Wybron Coloram II CC for 14°
(10w)
7 7.5” Wybron Coloram II CC for
Source Four Zoom (10w)
107 4” Wybron Coloram II CC for 19°
MDG Hazers
Tiny Foggers
DMX-it Tiny Fogger interfaces
Look VIPER foggers
LeMaitre Foggers and Chillers.
VIDEO
2 Barco RLM 6+ Performers, con
trolled by “Watchout,” triggered
via DMX by Rosco Keystroke.
1 Extron IPL TS RS232 Interface
2 Wybron Eclipse II Dowsers
Mary Poppins lighting
designer, Howard Harrison
Mary Poppins is the latest, greatest
spectacle to hit Broadway. It ambitiously
attempts to recapture the
magic of the film, including its myriad locations,
its animated park sequence and all of
the songs that people have come to know
and love, along with some new material. And
Gavin Lee, who plays artist/chimney sweep
Bert, very much performs in the style of Dick
Van Dyke.
The most impressive aspect of the show
is the three-story house set, which actually
breaks apart so that when it recedes back into
the stage, the attic can descend to stage level
and open up to reveal the characters inside.
The outside façade can also remain intact for
the rooftop sequences. When the audience
first saw this trick unveiled at one preview
show, they spontaneously applauded. “I think
it’s very, very cleverly designed,” says lighting
designer Howard Harrison of the house. “It’s
not just the size of it, but the unit is a whole.
It flows and takes you to a lot of different
places.”
Veteran designer Harrison, who has
worked for 25 years on shows in the West End
of London and on Broadway, had the challenge
of lighting a production that is among
the most ambitious that the Great White Way
has ever seen. He originally worked on the
show when it opened in the West End of London
in December 2004. After being involved
with other productions, he later joined Mary
Poppins’ Broadway incarnation, which began
running in November 2006. “I was in New York
for three months while we were doing it, and
it took that long because of the size of it,” he
says. “We needed that much time to get it
right.” He adds that he had slightly less time
to prepare the original British production.
In transitioning from the U.K. to the United
States, the show went through numerous
changes. “In every aspect: in terms of scenic
design, in terms of what I did, in terms of choreography
and direction,” explains Harrison.
“Fundamentally, the basis of the show is the
same, but everyone thought we could improve
on things. It was fantastic to be able to
get that second chance to do that.”
Mary Poppins on Broadway is loaded with
lights. “There are in the region of about 130
moving lights,” says Harrison. “It’s a large moving
light rig, but it’s got a small conventional
rig. Onstage there are very few conventional
lights at all, largely because there’s little real
estate” — indeed, little room above the stage
— “so that the only way to light it is to put
moving lights there. The scenery moves, so
the moving lights are not just a luxury for
lighting. The overhead electric onstage is 20
feet upstage, which is quite tricky.”
Despite all of the moving lights, the
sound designer did not have a problem on
his hands. “A big issue on the show was the
idea of noise,” stresses Harrison. “A lot of the
lights that we used were chosen for the lack
of noise they make as much as for what light
they produce, and largely we used this new
Martin instrument, the MAC 700, which is certainly
the quietest moving light that I’ve come
across. It is virtually silent. I think people are
quite surprised how quiet it is for the amount
of moving lights in the building.”
In designing lighting for Mary Poppins,
Harrison says his key goals were “to unify everything
with a style that was in keeping with
what the scenic design does, tying everything
together and also give the ability to create
some of the magic of Mary Poppins. Virtually
every scene is touched by her magic, and
therefore, being able to distort and change
the look of something as she applies magic
to it was crucial.”
An important element in the lighting
design was color, and most of the colors for
the moving lights were custom ones created
for the show. In terms of conventional color,
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